New Sobeys anchors downtown retail hub
Supermarket signals first wave of big growth predicted all along Vaughan Harvey Boulevard
By ROD ALLEN
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF
Published Saturday December 15th, 2007
Appeared on page A1
Moncton's new Sobeys supermarket opens at noon tomorrow and is cause for celebration all by itself with three times the jobs and twice the shopping of the store it replaces.
But it is also the first major commercial development directly related to the completion of the new Gunningsville Bridge in 2006 and the link to Vaughan Harvey Boulevard this past summer.
The new store is thus a giant leap forward for growth in Moncton and Sobeys 'sister company' ECL Developments, owner of the new supermarket and neighbouring Highfield Square, is poised to be a big part of it.
Steve Cleroux, director of development for ECL, said in an interview yesterday the company has already fielded strong interest from a wave of retail companies about the adjoining 10,000 square feet of newly built and still empty retail space on the West Main Street-facing north flank of the new supermarket, which in turn faces the new Vaughan Harvey Extension to the bridge. The south flank is taken up by a new NB Liquor outlet scheduled to open in mid-February.
Cleroux said he can't identify those interests today but said the entire 10,000 square feet is available for lease and that negotiations are moving at a pace that suggests 'tenant build-outs' launching in the spring and grand openings in the summer of 2008.
Further, ECL also owns two open acres immediately south of the existing supermarket-NB Liquor-retail complex bordering the Via Rail tracks and that, too, is drawing strong interest.
Cleroux could not say what might happen in the existing Highfield Square mall facing West Main but the company's tentative plans for the mall's old Sobeys supermarket -- it closes tonight -- suggest plenty of action is foreseen for the mall as well. Cleroux said ECL will likely demolish the old store for extra parking space "although nothing is cast in stone.
"We're waiting to see what happens. Our leasing personnel are dealing with potential retailers as we speak (but) it's obvious that the (overall) site can't help but improve traffic flow and build customer base in the area."
All available land on either side of the Extension will be a tempting target for retailers, says Ben Champoux, director of business development for the City of Moncton.
And there's lots of it.
Champoux noted CN and other parties own some big chunks of undeveloped land surrounding Highfield Square and the tracks. Giffels, the developer of the Emmerson commercial park further north of Vaughan Harvey, is talking about expanding the park but also building new commercial space on land it controls across the Extension from the new supermarket.
Champoux foresees quick movement all the way up the boulevard from the bridge northward to the land adjacent the new YMCA building, but the overall story is much larger than that. The plan is to fully develop Vaughan Harvey as part of a commercial pathway for regional shoppers pouring into the city from New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and northern Nova Scotia with a widened Mapleton Road as the entry point.
That way, shoppers can touch first at commercial areas such as the now-developing north end of Mapleton, to Trinity Power Centre and Plaza Boulevard and down Mountain Road to Vaughan Harvey and ultimately the downtown.
"It's a great day," said Champoux of Sobey's grand opening, "because it's obviously not just new jobs and better shopping but a strong new argument to consider downtown as a place to live as well as work."
Champoux predicted that the residential development that has been building up gradually in the downtown over the past decade will pick up quickly.
Moncton Mayor Lorne Mitton, who will speak at the store's grand opening (unless a predicted snowstorm delays it) said he has taken great pleasure in watching the new store take shape so quickly.
The mayor didn't miss an opportunity to mention that rapid growth is the kind of thing a municipal government can spur with extra tax money available from recent increases in property assessments.
But the best thing about the supermarket for him personally, said the mayor, is that within his four-year mandate he has witnessed two huge projects built to anchor the ends of downtown Main -- the Marriott Hotel and Keg restaurant in the east and the $15-million Sobeys development in the west.
Mitton will speak at the opening ceremonies which run from noon to 6 p.m., said Sobeys representative Jill Thomas-Myrick.
Local entertainment includes a three-piece jazz band and a concert by the West End School Choir.
About 50 employees worked at the old store and the new one requires a staff of 157, said Thomas-Myrick.
The store is twice as large as the old one as well, and contains all the new features the companies has been adding to its new fleet of supermarkets such as a deli department featuring more than 140 varieties of cheese.
The new store also has a 'community room' where at least once a week a local chef will be brought in to give cooking demonstrations.
The room will be available to community groups when the store isn't using it. It can be booked through the store's manager.
Who's hiring in Metro in 2008?
Finance, real estate, insurance sectors expected to lead Metro Moncton, Atlantic job growth in first three months
By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff
Published Saturday December 15th, 2007
Appeared on page D1
The finance, insurance and real estate sectors are the places to launch your new career in Atlantic Canada in early 2008, says the quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.
"Atlantic employers in the Finance, insurance and real estate sectors expect a robust hiring climate with an outlook of 31 per cent," the survey says. Other sectors project a strong job market in the region as well, Manpower says.
"Employers in the public administration sector anticipate a hopeful three months with a net employment outlook of 11 per cent."
The "outlook" is the difference between employers who are hiring minus those who are decreasing their work force. For example, the outlook for all industries in the Atlantic region is five per cent, which is a reflection of the 14 per cent of industries who say they will be hiring early in the new year, minus the nine per cent who say they'll be paring jobs from their payrolls.
But don't expect Metro employers to embark on a hiring blitz in January, February and March, the study says.
In Metro Moncton, the pace of hiring should dip in the first quarter of 2008, yet seven per cent of employers expect to hire during that period and 83 per cent intend to maintain their current staffing levels. However, says Mindy Stoltz of Manpower's Moncton office, 10 per cent expect to cut jobs.
"Moncton's first quarter net employment outlook of minus three per cent is a decrease from the same time last year when the outlook was four per cent," Stoltz said.
"It is also a decrease from the previous three months, when the net employment outlook was six per cent, indicating weak projections for the first quarter of 2008."
The prediction comes on the heels of news that New Brunswick led the nation in job creation last year and Metro Moncton powered much of that job growth.
Saint John shares a minus 3 per cent outlook with Moncton, while Fredericton's outlook is six per cent and Charlottetown's is 10 per cent.
Cape Breton registered the worst outlook in the Maritimes at minus 13 per cent while Halifax's 27 per cent topped regional statistics.
The Atlantic region's hiring outlook of five per cent tops Ontario's anticipated zero hiring growth but lags that of Quebec (eight per cent) and the west (22 per cent.)
Leading job creation sectors in 2008's first quarter, other than finance, real estate insurance and public administration include the wholesale and retail trade sector, with a net employment outlook in Atlantic Canada of nine per cent.
Transportation and public utilities boasts a six per cent outlook while education and manufacturing (non-durables) posted numbers of seven and six per cent, respectively.
Construction posted an outlook of minus 16 per cent, perhaps to be somewhat expected in mid-winter, while mining went from a plus 25 per cent in the fourth quarter of this year to a minus 25 per cent for the first quarter of 2008. For those looking elsewhere for work, nationally the sectors of construction, mining, wholesale and retail and manufacturing of non-durables showed the most glowing prospects for hiring in the first three months of the new year.
Hiring facts
* International employment-services firm Manpower Inc. surveys companies to estimate hiring trends for the coming quarter four times each year.
* They base their employment outlooks on responses by more than 1,700 public and private employers across the country and claims a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
* The survey has been running for almost 50 years.